We have more bacteria in our body than we do cells, said integrative nutrition coach and wellness expert Alyson Chugerman, of Attain Health in Wappingers Falls.

“And if we have used any antibiotics in our lifetime, (have been) under stress or have a poor diet — then we especially need to replace beneficial bacteria, and that just about covers all of us,” said Chugerman, author of “Eat Real, Live Mindfully and Laugh Often” which features the importance of gut heath.

So what is “gut health” and why should we pay attention? Gut health references the flora in our intestinal track, where scientists are discovering the majority of our immune system is generated. When our good intestinal bacteria is overrun by bad bacteria —usually due to poor health, disease, diet or antibiotic treatments — we become vulnerable to a host of undesirable symptoms and conditions, such as stomach and bowel pain, gas and bloating, malnutrition, diarrhea or constipation, digestive woes, inflammatory conditions, acid stomach and more. These days, Hollywood has been lauding probiotics as the fountain of youth. Additionally, there are multiple studies pointing to the importance of balanced gut flora for improved brainpower and function, due to the combination of B vitamins and vitamin K our guts need to absorb nutrition.

Vicki Koenig of Nutrition Wise, a master’s level, certified registered dietitian/nutritionist based in New Paltz, has been a professional lecturer on the benefits of probiotic diets, having foundational experience as Stonyfield Farm Yogurt’s nutritionist. For starters, she said, whatever probiotic supplement one is taking should have guaranteed potency.

“Probiotics need to be replenished to maintain their effect on the intestinal micro ecology,” she said, adding that it should be anywhere between one to several servings or doses per day or week. “They will not repopulate in the gut when there is a chronic condition.”

Koenig said probiotics are “strain specific,” like taking the right antibiotic to treat specific bacteria. For best results, one needs to take the recognized probiotic strain or strains to treat a clinical condition. For example, to treat antibiotic associated diarrhea, a patented strain of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (called LGG) has been shown to help.

“Eating yogurt is not enough,” she said.

There is also research now supporting the belief that since probiotics are living off our body’s sugars, that consuming probiotics can reduce sugar cravings, hence the swell in popularity of apple cider vinegar, a natural probiotic, for weight loss.

Koenig suggested folks seeking to boost their intestinal health will want to eat fermented foods, such as yogurt, kefir and kombucha tea. These all use specific cultures that define them. Yogurt must contain Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus to be called yogurt. These cultures reduce the lactose in yogurt. Fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut can contain the probiotics Leuconostoc, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus. Other examples are kimchee (pickled cabbage), pickles, cultured carrots and beets.

"Culturing soy improves its digestion,” Koenig said. “Culturing soy has been shown to decrease its phytate content, making it easier to absorb its nutrients. Miso and tempeh are examples.”

Humans have long fermented foods, as pickling was the earliest form of preserving the harvest. Start with a clean glass vessel, wide-mouth Mason jars being the most hassle-free. Chop, slice, grate, shred or leave the vegetables whole (although some vegetables ferment better when shredded or grated). Fermented food recipes either call for salt, salt and whey, or a starter culture. Prepare a brine using an appropriate water source, for example, heavily chlorinated water (such as municipal water) will inhibit the fermentation from occurring. Put the vegetables in the jar and weigh them down under the brine, as they need to be in an anaerobic environment during the fermentation period. The bubbling you see is good, that’s the lactic acid creating gases from the bacteria feasting on the sugars and starches in the vegetables. They are visible after a few days, and the bubbles themselves can be quite tasty. It will have a sour, vinegar-like flavor and become tangy. Taste them daily to decide just how fermented you would like them. Once they are done cultivating, place them in the fridge and keep cold — probiotics die when exposed to heat. Health food stores sell culture starters.

Kombucha is a superfood that is easy to make.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

No need to spend $3 on a bottle of kombucha when home-brewing kombucha is so simple. Add clean, non-chlorinated boiling water and mix in sugar, then add black tea bags to steep, until it cools to about 68-85 degrees. Then add starter tea from another batch and the kombucha starter (the necessary bacteria called the SCOBY — Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). Cover with gauze or cheesecloth and rubber band, and place in the sun to ferment for seven to 30 days. The bacteria feed off the sugar to ferment. Once it is fermented, it can be flavored. Save the SCOBY and a little kombucha for your next batch, and keep in the fridge.

Martha Sinclair-James of Clintondale has been fermenting foods over a decade, mostly cabbage and carrots, and kombucha with black tea and sugar, or green tea with honey.

“It helps my gut,” she said. “Helps my body fight off infection. I am sick a lot less these days, and I don’t seem to catch colds anymore.”

Sinclair-James added that her adult acne cleared up, and she believes it has even made her skin look healthier and “more alive.”

On the web

Chef Ric Orlando of New World Home Cooking in Saugerties offers recipes for making fermented foods.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Fermented recipes

By Ric Orlando, chef/owner New World Home Cooking, Saugerties

Shrubs are easy to make and are great tonics for the body. They are basically fruit, sugar and live vinegar, which are available at most natural foods stores. Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar is as reliable as any.

Apple Thyme Shrub

3 sweet apples

1 cup turbinado sugar (not brown)

1 cup apple cider

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar

1 sprig fresh thyme

Peel and grate the apples.

Mix the apples with the sugar and let stand at room tempersture overnight; cover loosely with wax paper.

Mix with all other ingredients except the thyme into a glass jar. Put the lid on and refrigerate for 3-4 days.

Strain, squeezing out all the juice from the apple pulp.

Put back in the jar, adding the thyme sprig.

Add to sparkling water, cocktails, iced tea or drink straight.

Corn and Cabbage Chowchow

Chowchow, picalilli and chutneys all have the same roots in European food preserving techniques. Salt, sugar and vinegar ferment and preserve the food while spices make it delicious. This recipe can be served at once, held in the fridge as long as a month or it can be properly canned and stored all winter. You can be creative with the veggies, just keep the marinade recipe as it is for preservation purposes.

Makes about 3 quarts

6 cups of roasted corn kernels

1 cup white cabbage, diced small

1 fresh hot pepper (your choice), cut into rings

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 cups green tomatoes or tomatillo, diced medium

1 rib celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium red onion, diced

1 sprig fresh thyme

1/4 cup kosher or canning salt

4 cups cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups white sugar

8 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

4 allspice berries

Fresh bay leaves

Put all of the vegetables in a large colander with a bowl under it to catch the water. What water? You’ll see.

Give these a day at room temperature to come to life, then refrigerate.

Fermented red hot pepper paste can easily be made at home.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Homemade Sriracha

This is the secret to good health. You can drink all of the kombucha you want, but a real fermented chili-garlic sauce is magic. Red chilies are not always in the market so when they are, grab 'em up! Show the world that the omnipresent "rooster" is not the only one who can make this addictive sauce. I bought my first bottle of this is Boston in 1982 — it's been a long love affair ever since.

Put everything in a food processor and grind to a coarse grind. (Don’t wash that processor bowl yet!) Scrape it out well and put the chili mix in a nonreactive pot. Simmer for 5 minutes or so to dry it out a bit. Put it all back in the processor. Puree until smooth.

Put mixture in a sterile jar. Cover with wax paper held on by a rubber band like a drum head.

Leave it on the counter or another safe place where it won't be disturbed for 24 hours. Then remove the wax paper, stir, and replace the drum head lid.

By the second day, you should begin to see bubbles appearing in the mix and it will start to expand. That's OK. Repeat the stir and re-cover routine for four days. At the end of four days, puree and strain the fermented, scary-looking sauce. Put in a nonreactive pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Store refrigerated.